“A lot of fans reached out and were very appreciative of what I said. That was the only thing that really meant something to me. I wanted to give others confidence in themselves because I know sometimes it’s hard to find. I got a lot of feedback from women and men who are either going through chemo or dialysis or a bunch of things that have made them lose weight and they can’t gain it. I got a lot of people saying they gained a bunch of weight and they can’t lose it but it’s because of their health. But I completely understand and it was really nice to hear those stories so we could be there together as a community.”

In addition to inspiring her fans around the world, Sarah has also inspired her costar and TV sis Ariel Winter, who has also dealt with her fair share of online bullies. Hyland to Refinery29,

“I would like to think that I have been a good influence on her for the past eight years. She was nine years old when she started, and I was eighteen, so I’d already been through actually bullying at school and girlfriends sleeping with boyfriends, and stabbing you in the back. Of course, we talk about things like that. We’re females and we like to empower each other.”

Although she refused to confirm that she’s working on an album, she did admit,

“I’ve been writing a lot and that’s all I’ll say. I don’t want to push the cart before the horse.”

Meanwhile, she’ll keep her day job as Haley Dunphy, which has, of course, been life-changing.

“I hope that the legacy goes on to show that we are a show that opened barriers for a lot of people. I’ve met a lot of people that have been very judgmental their whole lives, and because of Modern Family, they’ve opened their eyes a little bit. I literally, shit you not, [have met people] who have been like ‘I won’t let my kids watch the show because of the gays and I don’t want them to know about gay people.’ But [the characters] actually seem like real people, and like a real family. It’s still the greatest thing in the world to hear that we opened up their eyes to show that we’re all equal, and we’re all here to love one another and to live as normal a life as possible with our families.”

Lena Finkel is the Editor and Founder of Femestella. Prior to starting Femestella, she worked at People, InStyle, and Tiger Beat. Her favorite Housewife is Bethenny Frankel and when she’s not watching RHONY, you can probably find her obsessing over her tuxedo cat Tom or hoarding drugstore lipsticks.